Search

Traditional embroidery is an important handicraft in China, which has a cultural background of thousands of years and is also one of the important components of Chinese folk art. Combining traditional embroidery art with modern fashion design can form modern fashion design and provide good materials for the long-term development of fashion design in China. Combining embroidery technology with modern fashion design can strengthen the level of modern fashion design in China and make the development of fashion design in China more national characteristics.

PDT-SPACE is an open-source software tool that automates interstitial photodynamic therapy treatment planning by providing patient-specific placement of light sources to destroy a tumor while minimizing healthy tissue damage. This work extends PDT-SPACE in two ways. The first enhancement allows specification of clinical access constraints on light source insertion to avoid penetrating critical structures and to minimize surgical complexity. Constraining fiber access to a single burr hole of adequate size increases healthy tissue damage by 10%. The second enhancement generates an initial placement of light sources as a starting point for refinement, rather than requiring entry of a starting solution by the clinician. This feature improves productivity and also leads to solutions with 4.5% less healthy tissue damage. The two features are used in concert to perform simulations of various surgery options of virtual glioblastoma multiforme brain tumors.

This study aimed to identify predictors of rapid improvement of papilledema after stenting and develop a simple preintervention scale.A prospective cohort of idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) with venous sinus stenosis (VSS) treated with stenting in a tertiary hospital from January 2014 to December 2019 was reviewed. We categorized papilledema improvement into favorable (grades 0-1) and unfavorable (grades 2-5). We employed logistic regression analysis to find the predictive factors and develop the predictive scale. We then estimated the performance of the scale using the ROC curve and Hosmer-Lemeshow test.There were 110 patients who underwent venous sinus stenting, with a mean age of 37.1 years and a predominance of females (77.3%). A total of 85 patients had a favorable outcome following stenting, while 25 patients had an unfavorable outcome. The results of the multivariate analysis indicate that lower preoperative pressure gradients (odds ratio, OR: 4.01; 95% confidence interval, CI: 1.27-12.68), stenosis rates (OR: 4.16; 95% CI: 1.11-15.56), and preoperative papilledema grades (OR: 2.92; 95% CI: 1.44-5.91) were independently associated with rapid improvement of papilledema following stenting treatment. The 3‑item scale exhibited good discrimination with an area under the curve (AOC) of 0.81 (95% CI 0.72-0.89, p 0.001), as well as acceptable calibration determined by the Hosmer-Lemeshow test (P = 0.42). The optimal cut-off value of the scale (range 0-6 points) was ≥ 4 points, with a sensitivity of 72%, specificity of 73%, and accuracy of 78%.The presence of lower preoperative pressure gradients, stenosis severity, and preoperative status of papilledema were identified as positive predictors of rapid improvement of the papilledema following stenting in IIH patients. The 3‑item scale provides a promising preintervention predictive model for predicting rapid response following stenting treatment in IIH patients with VSS.

Open-source software packages have been extensively used in the past three decades in medical imaging and diagnostics, aiming to study the feasibility of the application ex vivo. Unfortunately, most of the existing open-source tools require some software engineering background to install the prerequisite libraries, choose a suitable computational platform, and combine several software tools to address different applications.To facilitate the use of open-source software in medical applications, enabling computational studies of treatment outcomes prior to the complex in-vivo setting.FullMonteWeb, an open-source, user-friendly web-based software with a graphical user interface for interstitial photodynamic therapy (iPDT) modeling, visualization, and optimization, is introduced. The software can perform Monte Carlo simulations of light propagation in biological tissues, along with iPDT plan optimization. FullMonteWeb installs and runs the required software and libraries on Amazon Web Services (AWS), allowing scalable computing without complex set up.FullMonteWeb allows simulation of large and small problems on the most appropriate compute hardware, enabling cost improvements of 10 × versus always running on a single platform. Case studies in optical property estimation and diffuser placement optimization highlight FullMonteWeb's versatility.The FullMonte open source suite enables easier and more cost-effective in-silico studies for iPDT.

Objective An epidemic of obesity is prevalent in the world. Recent evidences have linked obesity to male infertility , but the underlying mechanisms remain to be elucidated. Although spermatozoa dysfunction is the most cause of infertility and defective mitochondrial function plays a key role in impairing the sperm quality , there was little study on the role of mitochondria within spermatozoa in obese male infertility. Methods In this study, the semen parameters in Chinese obesity (BMI ≥ 28 kg/m2, n = 51) and normal (BMI of 18.5 to 23.9 kg/m2, n = 42) volunteers were investigated. Moreover, the oxidative stress injury was explored in human spermatozoa by examining the activity of intracellular SOD and MDA in sperm and LDH release from sperm. The activity test of mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes and the mitochondrial membrane potential were also performed. Results We found that obesity had a negative influence on the quality of semen. Furthermore, oxidative stress was detected in sperm from obese males. Oxidative stress-related mitochondrial dysfunction was also observed in the spermatozoa of obese males. Conclusions In total, these results indicated that oxidative stress-related mitochondrial dysfunction might be a reason for obesity-induced infertility, which provided the insights into the pathophysiological mechanism behind obesity-induced infertility in obese human males.

BackgroundThis prospective cohort study compared the outcomes of stenting and medical treatment for patients with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) and venous sinus stenosis (VSS).MethodsIn this single-center cohort study, patients with IIH and VSS were evaluated between January 2014 and December 2019 with follow-up periods of 1, 3, and 6 months. The patients received either stenting or medical treatment. The two groups underwent 1:1 matching using propensity score analysis, and the clinical outcomes were compared.ResultsFollowing 1:1 matching, 36 patients who underwent stenting and 36 who underwent medical treatment were matched. The median improvements in the papilledema Frisén grade were greater in the stenting group at 1 month (−2 vs 0), 3 months (−3 vs −1), and 6 months (−3 vs −1) than in the medical treatment group. Patients who received stenting treatment had a significantly higher prevalence of complete resolution of their respective symptoms (headache, tinnitus, or visual disturbances) at 3 months (58.3% vs 13.9%, OR 8.68, 95% CI 2.74 to 27.52) and 6 months (80.6% vs 22.2%, OR 14.50, 95% CI 4.64 to 45.32) than those receiving medical treatment.ConclusionsThis matched-control study shows that stenting has a greater efficacy rate and rapid resolution of papilledema and its respective symptoms compared with medical treatment.

BACKGROUND College students are at-risk populations of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and risky sexual behaviors (RSBs). However, little literature focuses on the comprehensive influence factors of RSB in China. OBJECTIVE This study aims to describe the RSB among college students in Wenzhou and explore potential influencing factors of RSB to provide references for HIV prevention and control. METHODS A cross-sectional survey was conducted from November to December 2020 in Wenzhou university city. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data anonymously. Some demographic questions, AIDS-related health education, sexual attitudes, condom use effectiveness, HIV awareness, HIV testing awareness and behavior, HIV self-perceived risk, and sexual behavior were investigated and analyzed. Chi-square test and logistic regression were used to analyze the factors associated with RSB. We also performed some sensitivity analyses, such as subgroup analyses according to gender. P-values RESULTS A total of 5627 college students were included in this survey. Of all participants, 353 (6.3%) had sexual behaviors, of which 79 (22.4%) students were engaged in RSB mainly including same-sex sex, casual sex, and unprotected sex. In the multivariable logistic regression analysis, higher-risk sexual attitudes (P CONCLUSIONS Prevalence of RSB among college students is on the rise. The prevalence of AIDS will increase dramatically if these RSBs persist. More comprehensive and specific education on HIV knowledge and RSB-related knowledge should be designed and offered to college students on campus.

The effect of calcium supplementation on bone mineral accretion in people under 35 years old is inconclusive. To comprehensively summarize the evidence for the effect of calcium supplementation on bone mineral accretion in young populations (≤35 years).This is a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Pubmed, Embase, ProQuest, CENTRAL, WHO Global Index Medicus, Clinical Trials.gov, WHO ICTRP, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Wanfang Data databases were systematically searched from database inception to April 25, 2021. Randomized clinical trials assessing the effects of calcium supplementation on bone mineral density (BMD) or bone mineral content (BMC) in people under 35 years old.This systematic review and meta-analysis identified 43 studies involving 7,382 subjects. Moderate certainty of evidence showed that calcium supplementation was associated with the accretion of BMD and BMC, especially on femoral neck (standardized mean difference [SMD] 0.627, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.338-0.915; SMD 0.364, 95% CI 0.134-0.595; respectively) and total body (SMD 0.330, 95% CI 0.163-0.496; SMD 0.149, 95% CI 0.006-0.291), also with a slight improvement effect on lumbar spine BMC (SMD 0.163, 95% CI 0.008-0.317), no effects on total hip BMD and BMC and lumbar spine BMD were observed. Very interestingly, subgroup analyses suggested that the improvement of bone at femoral neck was more pronounced in the peripeak bone mass (PBM) population (20-35 years) than the pre-PBM population (20 years).Our findings provided novel insights and evidence in calcium supplementation, which showed that calcium supplementation significantly improves bone mass, implying that preventive calcium supplementation before or around achieving PBM may be a shift in the window of intervention for osteoporosis.This work was supported by Wenzhou Medical University grant [89219029].Osteoporosis and bone fractures are common problems among older people, particularly older women. These conditions cause disability and reduce quality of life. Progressive loss of bone mineral density is usually the culprit. So far, strategies to prevent bone weakening with age have produced disappointing results. For example, taking calcium supplements in later life only slightly reduces the risk of osteoporosis or fracture. New approaches are needed. Bone mass increases gradually early in life and peaks and plateaus around 20-35 years of age. After that period, bone mass slowly declines. Some scientists suspect that increasing calcium intake during this period of peak bone mass may reduce osteoporosis or fracture risk later in life. A meta-analysis by Liu, Le et al. shows that boosting calcium intake in young adulthood strengthens bones. The researchers analyzed data from 43 randomized controlled trials that enrolled 7,382 participants. About half the studies looked at the effects of taking calcium supplements and the other half analyzed the effects of a high calcium diet. Boosting calcium intake in people younger than age 35 improved bone mineral density throughout the body. It also increased bone mineral density at the femoral neck, where most hip fractures occur. Calcium supplementation produced larger effects in individuals between the ages of 20 and 35 than in people younger than 20. Both high calcium diets and calcium supplements with doses less than 1000 mg/d boosted bone strength. Higher dose calcium supplements did not provide any extra benefits. The analysis suggests people should pay more attention to bone health during early adulthood. Large randomized clinical trials are needed to confirm the long-term benefits of boosting calcium intake during early adulthood. But if the results are validated, taking calcium supplements, or eating more calcium-rich foods between the ages of 20 and 35 may help individuals build healthier bones and prevent fractures and osteoporosis later in life.

As soon as the play Forging the Truth (Nongzhen chengjia, 1943) written by the Chinese scholar Yang Jiang (1911-2016) premiered during World War II, critics considered the work to be the second milestone of the Chinese comedy of manners. This comment is unsurprising since Yang had a longstanding scholarly interest in the British comedy of manners tradition, especially those by Jane Austen (1775-1817). Also an academic and writer, Yang’s husband, Qian Zhongshu (1910-1998), after watching the play, began writing his only published novel, Fortress Besieged (1947). Given Qian’s inseparable fellowship with Yang Jiang, his irrefutable grounding in Chinese and European arts and letters, and exploration of how marriage impacts the individual in the novel, one wonders why scholars have not recognised even one female author among his source influences. This article establishes a link between Austen and Qian by integrating biographical accounts, a scholarship work Yang had done, and close readings of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813), Yang Jiang’s Nongzhen chengjia, and Qian Zhongshu’s Fortress Besieged. By looking at their adaptations of the comedy of manners genre, this article expands on a common quality the three works all share: the duality of playful irony and intelligent compassion.

This paper presents a sliding mode dynamic surface control strategy for multi-machine power systems with static var compensator (SVC) to design the controller of the generator excitation system. Fi...

Introduction: Kidney cancer is among the 10 most common cancers in both men and women. As we know, obesity and overweight is one of the confirmed risk factors. However, several studies found that overweight or obese patients with kidney cancer had a better prognosis than normal weight patients, as known as the “obesity paradox”. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to conduct a systematic meta- analysis of peer- reviewed literature to investigate the association between obesity or overweight and kidney cancer outcomes.Methods and analysis: Our review will assess case-control or cohort studies on prognosis of kidney cancer patients who are classified as obese, overweight or normal weight before 1 August 2020. Databases to be searched include PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science and Embase. Two authors will independently conduct eligible studies selection process, perform data extraction and appraise the quality of included studies. Original case-control or cohort studies published in English will be considered for inclusion. The outcomes of interest will be progression-free survival, cancer- specific survival and overall survival. Meta-analyses will be performed to calculate pooled estimates. Ethics and dissemination: Our study will be based on published data, and thus there is no requirement for ethics approval. The results will be shared through publication in a peer- reviewed journal and presentations at academic conferences. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42021223347

Summary Focusing on solving the control problem of the multimachine excitation systems with static var compensator (SVC), this paper proposes a decentralized neural adaptive dynamic surface control...

Plants play an important role as sinks for or indicators of semivolatile organic pollutants, however most studies have focused on terrestrial plants and insufficient information has been obtained on aquatic plants to clarify the accumulation of organic pollutants via air-to-leaf vs. water-to-leaf pathways. The presence of p, pʹ-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p, pʹ-DDE), hexachlorobenzene (HCB), 15 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and 9 substituted PAHs (s-PAHs), including oxy-PAHs and sulfur-PAHs, in 10 submerged and emergent plants collected from Lake Dianchi was analyzed in this study. Relatively low concentrations of p, pʹ-DDE (ND to 2.22 ng/g wet weight [ww]) and HCB (0.24–0.84 ng/g ww) and high levels of PAHs (46–244 ng/g ww) and s-PAHs (6.0–46.8 ng/g ww) were observed in the aquatic plants. Significantly higher concentrations of most of the compounds were detected in the leaves of the submerged plants than in those of the emergent plants. The percentages of concentration difference relative to the concentrations in the submerged plants were estimated at 55%, 40%, 10%–69% and 0.5%–79% for p, pʹ-DDE, HCB, PAHs, and s-PAHs, respectively. The percentages were found to increase significantly with an increase in log Kow, suggesting that the high level of phytoaccumulation of pollutants in aquatic plants is due to hydrophobicity-dependent diffusion via the water-to-leaf pathway and the mesophyll morphology of submerged plants.

The public key cryptographic algorithm SM2 is now widely used in electronic authentication systems, key management systems, and e-commercial applications systems. As an asymmetric cryptographic algorithm is based on elliptic curves cryptographic (ECC), the SM2 algorithm involves many complex calculations and is expected to be sufficiently optimized. However, we found existing SM2 implementations are less efficient due to the lack of proper optimization. In this paper, we propose Yog-SM2, an optimized implementation of SM2 digital signature algorithm, that uses features of modern desktop processors such as extended arithmetic instructions and the large cache. Yog-SM2 utilizes new features provided by modern processors to re-implement functions of big number arithmetic, prime field modular, elliptic curve point calculation, and random number generation. The use of these new hardware features significantly improves the performance of both SM2 signing and verifying. Our experiments demonstrated that the execution speed of Yog-SM2 exceeds four mainstream SM2 implementations in state-of-the-art cryptographic libraries such as OpenSSL and Intel ippcp. In addition, Yog-SM2 also achieves a better performance (97,475 sign/s and 18,870 verify/s) against the OpenSSL’s optimized implementation of ECDSA-256 (46,753 sign/s and 16,032 verify/s, OpenSSL-1.1.1b x64) on a mainstream desktop processor (Intel i7 6700, 3.4 GHz). It indicates that SM2 digital signature is promising in a widespread application scenarios.

Objective With the discovery of thermogenic adipocytes in humans, it has been hypothesized that enhancing adaptive thermogenesis may improve obesity. Although many studies have found that ginseng can improve obesity, the beneficial effects of ginsenoside Rd on obesity and its mechanisms have not been studied. Methods High-fat diet-induced obese mice were used as the study subjects, with intraperitoneal injection of Rd daily at a dose of 15 mg/kg. Body weight and energy metabolism were observed. The effects of Rd on glucose tolerance, insulin sensitivity, and cold tolerance were tested. The expression of genes associated with thermogenesis was analyzed. Finally, the mechanisms by which Rd regulates adaptive thermogenesis were studied. Results Rd ameliorated obesity and insulin resistance. Rd increased cold tolerance through enhancing thermogenic gene expression in brown adipose tissue and increased the browning of white adipose tissue induced by cold stress. Rd increased intracellular cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) content. Decreasing intracellular cAMP levels by an inhibitor of adenylyl cyclase SQ22536 abolished the promoting effects of Rd on the expression of thermogenic genes. Conclusions Rd improves obesity and insulin resistance. The upregulation of thermogenesis by Rd is dependent on the cAMP/protein kinase A signaling pathway.

// Ling Qi 1,* , Lijuan Ding 2,* , Shuran Wang 3 , Yue Zhong 3 , Donghai Zhao 3 , Ling Gao 2 , Weiyao Wang 1 , Peng Lv 1 , Ye Xu 1 and Shudong Wang 4 1 Basic Medical College, Jilin Medical University, Jilin, China 2 Department of Radiation Oncology, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China 3 Department of Science and Technology, Jilin Medical University, Jilin, China 4 Center of Cardiovascular Diseases, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China * These authors have contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Ye Xu, email: // Shudong Wang, email: // Keywords : chemotherapy, radiotherapy, glioma, network meta-analysis, temozolomide Received : April 05, 2016 Accepted : July 10, 2016 Published : July 21, 2016 Abstract Different chemotherapy drugs are generally introduced in clinical practices combining with therapy for glioma treatment. However, these chemotherapy drugs have rarely been compared with each other and the optimum drug still remains to be proved. In this research, medical databases were consulted, PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library included. As primary outcomes, hazard ratio (HR) of overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) with their corresponding 95% credential intervals ( CrI ) were reported. A network meta-analysis was conducted; the surface under the cumulative ranking curve (SUCRA) was utilized for treatment rank and a cluster analysis based on SUCRA values was performed. This research includes 14 trials with 3,681 subjects and eight interventions. In terms of network meta-analysis, placebo was proved to be inferior to the combination of temozolomide (TMZ), nimustine (ACNU) and cisplatin (CDDP). Also, bevacizumab (BEV) in conjunction with TMZ were significantly more effective than placebo with an HR of 0.40. The estimated probabilities from SUCRA verified the above outcomes, confirming that the combination of TMZ, ACNU and CDDP exhibited the highest ranking probability of 0.889 with respect to OS, while BEV in combination with TMZ - with a probability of 0.772 - ranked the first place with respect to PFS. According to the results of this network meta-analysis, the combination of (1) TMZ, ACNU and CDDP; (2) BEV in combination with TMZ and (3) cilengitide in combination with TMZ, are considered as the preferable choices of chemotherapy drugs for glioma treatment.

Habitat is of great importance in determining the trophic transfer of pollutants in freshwater ecosystems; however, the major factors influencing chemical trophodynamics in pelagic and benthic food webs remain unclear. This study investigated the levels of p,p'-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (p,p'-DDE), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and substituted PAHs (s-PAHs) in 2 plankton species, 6 invertebrate species, and 10 fish species collected from Lake Dianchi in southern China. Relatively high concentrations of PAHs and s-PAHs were detected with total concentrations of 11.4-1400 ng/g wet weight (ww) and 5.3-115 ng/g ww, respectively. Stable isotope analysis and stomach content analysis were applied to quantitatively determine the trophic level of individual organisms and discriminate between pelagic and benthic pathways, and the trophodynamics of the detected compounds in the two food webs were assessed. P,p'-DDE was found to exhibit relatively higher trophic magnification rate in the pelagic food web than in the benthic food web. In contrast, PAHs and s-PAHs exhibited greater dilution rates along the trophic levels in the pelagic food web. The lower species differences of pollutants accumulated in benthic organisms compared to pelagic organisms is attributable to extra uptake via ingested sediment in benthos. The average uptake proportions of PAHs and s-PAHs via ingested sediment in benthic biotas were estimated to be 31-77%, and that of p,p'-DDE was 46%. The uptake routes are of importance for assessing the trophic magnification potentials of organic pollutants, especially in eutrophic freshwater ecosystems.

To investigate the association between pathological myopia (PM) and immunological/inflammatory markers and to identify the possible risk factors for the formation of myopic choroidal neovascularization (mCNV).One hundred fourteen unrelated subjects were recruited: 63 PM patients (PM group) with spherical equivalent of at least -8.00 diopters (range, -8.00 to -25.00) and axial length exceeding 26.5 mm, accompanied by characteristic pathologic changes, and 51 emmetropic age- and sex-matched individuals (control group) with spherical equivalent within ±1.0 diopter in both eyes. In the PM group, patients were assigned to two subgroups, mCNV group and no CNV group, according to the results of fluorescein angiography. Serum high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and complement profile (C3, C4, and CH50) were assayed. Statistical analysis was performed between the two groups. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the relative risk factors that were associated with the development of mCNV in the PM group patients.The range of axial length was 26.50 to 37.08 mm in the PM group and 22.32 to 24.56 mm in the control group. There were 24 patients in the mCNV group and 39 patients in the no CNV group. The PM group patients had significantly higher serum hs-CRP (p = 0.033), C3 (p = 0.004), and CH50 (p0.001) compared with the control group patients. There were no significant differences between the two groups for C4 level (p = 0.071). Binary logistic regression analysis, which included hs-CRP, C3, C4, CH50, age, and sex as covariates, showed that C3 (p = 0.03) and age (p = 0.01) were risk factors for mCNV, whereas serum hs-CRP, C4, CH50, and sex were not statistically significant predictors of mCNV in the PM group patients (p0.05).Our data support the hypothesis that immunological/inflammatory markers, namely hs-CRP, C3, and CH50 may play an important role in the development of PM, and that C3 level may be a predictive risk factor for mCNV formation.

Background and aims Chronic inflammation plays pivotal roles in both cancer and cardiovascular diseases. A large body of evidence suggests that high intake of cruciferous vegetables is closely related with low risk of these disorders. However, the underlying mechanisms of protection are not fully understood. The aim of this study is to test the protective effects of an isothiocyanate sulphoraphane on inflammatory injury and related regulation pathways in cultured endothelial cells. Methods and results The expressions of adhesion molecules were determined by TaqMan real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Western blot analysis. Nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-кB) translocation was detected by immunofluorescent hybridisation. Other proteins were measured by Western blot analysis. The results demonstrated that sulphoraphane significantly suppresses the expression of intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1 and vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1 stimulated by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) both at the transcriptional and translational levels. In addition, sulphoraphane inhibited the translocation of NF-кB into the nucleus. Sulphoraphane decreased the phosphorylation of extra-cellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK), Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), while further blockade and activation using individually specific agents confirm that p38 MAPK and JNK are mainly involved. Interestingly, sulphoraphane down-regulated Toll-like receptor (TLR)-4, a receptor of LPS located on the membrane. In addition, MyD88, an effector downstream TLR-4 signal pathway was subsequently attenuated. Conclusion Taken all together, adhesion molecules are confirmed to be the novel targets of sulphoraphane in preventing inflammatory insult to endothelial cells. Sulphoraphane suppressed TLR-4 followed by MyD88 and downstream factors such as p38 MAPK and JNK, ultimately blocking NF-кB translocation and the subsequent expression of adhesion molecules. These data suggested a novel inflammatory pathway mediated by sulphoraphane.

To realize the oxidative damage of kidney mitochondrial complex in obese rats induced by high-fat diet and investigate the protective effects of sulforaphane against the damage.Eighty-eight adult male SD rats were used, after 1 week adaptability feeding, 8 rats were selected as control group and given low-fat diet. The other 80 rats were given high-fat diet. After 2 weeks, the 32 diet-induced obesity models were choosen whose weight gain was higher than 40%. The 32 rats were randomly divided into 4 groups, i.e. high fat group, high fat+sulforaphane low dose group, high fat+sulforaphane middle dose group and high fat+sulforaphane high dose group. The rats in the sulforaphane low, middle and high dose groups were orally administered with sulforaphane 5, 10 and 20 mg/kg, all the 4 groups were kept feeding high-fat diet for 5 weeks. All rats were sacrificed and their kidneys were removed to assay the index of oxidative damages.The content of ROS (0.26 ± 0.04) and MDA((0.87 ± 0.05) U/mg) in the hight-fat group were significantly higher than those in the control group((0.20 ± 0.02),(0.57 ± 0.08) U/mg)(t values were -3.02 and -4.72, P0.05). The activity of T-AOC((0.43 ± 0.04) U/mg) and MMP (12.09 ± 1.56) were lower than the control group ((0.48 ± 0.04 U/mg, (16.08 ± 3.12) )(t values were 2.06 and 2.28, P0.05). Gavage intervention with sulforaphane, the MDA amount ((0.67 ± 0.05), (0.55 ± 0.05), (0.56 ± 0.07) U/mg) in the sulforaphane low, middle and high dose groups were lower than the hight-fat group ((0.87 ± 0.05) U/mg (t values were 3.65, 5.71 and 5.60. P0.05). The activity of T-AOC ((0.49 ± 0.05), (0.55 ± 0.05), (0.54 ± 0.04) U/mg), T-SOD ((61.07 ± 2.79), (55.95 ± 2.39), (60.26 ± 6.02) U/mg) and the level of MMP ((17.17 ± 2.52), (18.24 ± 2.54), (18.21 ± 3.65)) were higher than in the high-fat group ((0.43 ± 0.04) U/mg,(47.22 ± 2.43) U/mg,(12.09 ± 1.56)) (tT-AOC values were -2.36, -4.83 and -4.30; tT-SOD values were -6.37, -4.71 and -5.99; tMMP values were -2.90, -3.52 and -3.50, P0.05). The activity of GSH-Px in the sulforaphane low and middle dose groups ((69.12 ± 8.63), (64.43 ± 6.58) U/mg) were higher than those in the high-fat group((53.03 ± 5.70) U/mg)(t values were -3.82 and -2.71, P0.05). But there were no significant difference between the high dose group ((60.02 ± 7.05) U/mg) and the high-fat group (t = -1.66, P0.05).High-fat diet can induce the mitochondrial oxidative dysfunction in kidney, and sulforaphane shows protective effect on the kidney mitochondrial complex from oxidative damage in obese rats induced by high-fat diet.

The isothiocyanate, sulforaphane and the flavonoid, apigenin modulate gene expression including phase II detoxifying enzymes, such as glutathione S-transferases (GST) and UDP-glucuronosyltransferases (UGT). Using undifferentiated CaCo-2 cells, we have examined the interactions between sulforaphane and apigenin in the regulation of UGT and GST expression. We show that apigenin induces UGT1A1 transcription (4-fold) but not GSTA1, and that sulforaphane induces both UGT1A1 (3.7-fold) and GSTA1 (2.8-fold) transcription in both dose- and time-dependent manners. The combination of sulforaphane and apigenin resulted in a synergistic induction of UGT1A1 mRNA up to 12-fold, although this interaction was not seen for GSTA1. Nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kappaB) mRNA was induced by apigenin and sulforaphane (2.5- and 2-fold, respectively). NF-kappaB translocation inhibitor SN50 and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3) inhibitor LY294002 decreased the induction of GSTA1 by sulforaphane almost to baseline level. However, the MEK inhibitor PD98059 enhanced significantly the induction of GSTA1 by sulforaphane. This suggests that NF-kappaB and PI3-kinase signaling pathways play a role in GSTA1 gene expression. Conversely, the induction of UGT1A1 transcription by sulforaphane was totally abolished by PD98059, although PD98059 slightly enhanced (20%) the induction of UGT1A1 by apigenin implying that the induction of UGT1A1 by sulforaphane is mediated by MAPK/extracellular signal-regulated kinase kinase, whereas UGT1A1 induction by apigenin may be associated with NF-kappaB translocation since the NF-kappaB translocation inhibitor, SN50 enhanced the induction of UGT by apigenin. The results show that UGT1A1 and GSTA1 are regulated by sulforaphane through different signal transduction pathways and the differences in the mechanisms of modulation of UGT1A1 transcription by sulforaphane and apigenin resulted in a synergistic effect between these two compounds in the induction of UGT1A1.

In the present study, we investigated the potential efficacy of cruciferous vegetable-derived sulforaphane (SFN) in improving homocysteine (HCY)-stressed cells. After human hepatocyte line HHL-5 was preincubated with SFN and subsequently with 10 mmol/L HCY, SFN improved the pathologic changes which are caused by HCY, including cell morphological abnormality, endoplasmic reticulum (ER) swelling, excessive generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), the increased malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, as well as the increased activities of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST). Phase II enzymes, thioredoxin reductase-1 (TrxR-1) andquinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1), were involved in the protective effect of SFN against injury by HCY. The ER stress-specific proteins, such as glucose-regulated protein-78 (GRP78) and protein kinase RNA (PKR)-like ER kinase (PERK), were strikingly abolished by SFN. Furthermore, Nrf-2 translocation was enhanced by SFN, which lead to the induction of TrxR-1and NQO1.

Background: Body energy homeostasis is largely regulated by the interactions between appetite-related brain regions and gut hormones. Objective: We hypothesized that the sensitivity of appetite-related brain regions [eg, hypothalamus, insula, thalamus, parahippocampal/ hippocampal cortex, caudate, putamen, amygdala, and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)] varies for each macronutrient, and the differential sensitivity is associated with gut hormone concentrations in humans. Design: Brain activation responses to ingested fat, glucose, protein, and water in the above-mentioned 8 brain regions of 14 healthy men were investigated by using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Fasting and postprandial plasma glucose, insulin, ghrelin, cholecystokinin (CCK), and glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) concentrations were measured. The relation of the blood oxygen level–dependent (BOLD) signal with plasma glucose and hormone concentrations was assessed by using Pearson’s correlation analysis. Results: Ingested macronutrients similarly reduced the BOLD signal in the middle insula, thalamus, parahippocampal cortex, caudate, and lateral OFC. Protein ingestion reduced the BOLD signal in the amygdala more effectively than did fat and glucose ingestion. BOLD signal changes were positively correlated with circulating ghrelin concentrations and were negatively correlated with circulating insulin, CCK, and GLP-1 concentrations. The findings indicate variations in the correlation between brain activation and plasma hormone concentrations after ingestion of different macronutrients. Conclusions: The middle insula, thalamus, parahippocampal cortex, caudate, and lateral OFC, but not the amygdala, have sensitivities similar to those of isocaloric and isovolumetric macronutrient solutions. Differential correlations exist between BOLD signal changes in activated brain regions and postprandial changes in plasma concentrations of different gut hormones in response to the ingestion of different macronutrients. This trial was registered at chictr.org as ChiCTR-TRC-12001945. Am J Clin Nutr 2012; 96:275–82.

To investigate the effect of topical pranoprofen 0.1% on the clinical evaluation and conjunctival human leukocyte antigen II (HLA-DR) expression in dry eyes.Sixty patients with dry eyes were randomized to 2 groups. Patients in group 1 received topical pranoprofen 0.1% plus topical sodium hyaluronate 0.1%; and patients in group 2 received sodium hyaluronate without pranoprofen. Ocular surface disease index (OSDI), tearfilig;lm break-up time (TBUT), Schirmer I test, ocular surface staining (OSS), and conjunctival HLA-DR expression were evaluated before treatment and at 15 and 30 days after treatment.On day 15, patients in group 1 had significantly lower OSDI, OSS, and HLA-DR-positive cells compared with patients in group 2 (P0.01), and the TBUT was significantly longer in patients in group 1 than that of patients in group 2 (P0.01). On day 30, the difference between the 2 groups in OSS lost significance; however, there continued to be significant differences in the OSDI, TBUT, and HLA-DR expression between the 2 groups (P0.01). On days 15 and 30, the values in group 1 patients had significant improvement compared with their baseline values in terms of the above-mentioned parameters. The comparisons within group 2 did not reveal any significant differences. There was no significant effect in the Schirmer I test value in eyes of patients in group 1 or group 2 at days 15 or 30 (P0.05).Topical pranoprofen 0.1% has a beneficial effect in reducing the ocular signs and symptoms of dry eyes and decreasing the inflammatory markers of conjunctival epithelial cells.

Metastasis and recurrence of bladder cancer are the main reasons for its poor prognosis and high mortality rates. Because of its biological activity and high metabolic accumulation in urine, sulforaphane, a phytochemical exclusively occurring in cruciferous vegetables, has a powerful and specific potential for preventing bladder cancer. In this paper, sulforaphane is shown to significantly suppress a variety of biochemical pathways including the attachment, invasion, migration and chemotaxis motion in malignant transitional bladder cancer T24 cells. Transfection with cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) overexpression plasmid largely abolished inhibition of MMP2/9 expression as well as cell invasive capability by sulforaphane. Moreover, sulforaphane inhibited the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) process which underlies tumor cell invasion and migration mediated by E-cadherin induction through reducing transcriptional repressors, such as ZEB1 and Snail. Under conditions of over-expression of COX-2 and/or MMP2/9, sulforaphane was still able to induce E-cadherin or reduce Snail/ZEB1 expression, suggesting that additional pathways might be involved. Further studies indicated that miR-200c played a role in the regulation of E-cadherin via the ZEB1 repressor but not by the Snail repressor. In conclusion, the EMT and two recognized signaling pathways (COX-2/MMP2,9/ ZEB1, Snail and miR-200c/ZEB1) are all targets for sulforaphane. This study indicated that sulforaphane may possess therapeutic potential in preventing recurrence of human bladder cancer.

Gastrointestinal (GI) motility and gut hormones have been considered to be involved in the development and maintenance of obesity. Our aim was to assess the relationships between gastric emptying (GE), GI transit and gut hormones and leptin concentrations in diet-induced obese rat model. Male 6-week-old Sprague–Dawley rats were fed with a high-fat (HF) diet for 8 weeks to generate diet-induced obesity (DIO) and diet resistant (DR) rats. GE, GI transit and plasma ghrelin, cholecystokinin (CCK), PYY and leptin concentrations were determined in DIO, DR and control (CON) rats. The DIO rats had slower GE, higher plasma leptin and CCK concentrations, and lower plasma ghrelin concentration compared with CON and DR rats. GE was correlated with plasma ghrelin ( r = 0.402, P = 0.028), CCK ( r = − 0.518, P = 0.003) and leptin concentration ( r = − 0.514, P = 0.004). The slower GE, which can be considered as an adaptive response aimed at HF diet induced obesity, may be mediated by changes of plasma ghrelin, CCK and leptin concentrations.

Feather selection is a process that extracts a number of feature subsets which are the most representative of the original meaning from original feature set. It greatly reduces the text processing time and increases the accuracy because of removing some data outliers. With the rapid development of Web 2.0 and the further evolution of the Internet, short text like micro-blog plays an important role in people's daily life. However, existing feature selection methods cannot effectively extract these short text features, and greatly reduce the classification and clustering performance of short text. In this regard, we propose a novel feature selection method based on part-of-speech and HowNet. According to the composition of the text property, we choose the words with larger amount of information by different part-of-speech, and then expand the semantic features of these words based on HowNet, in this way the short text has more useful features. We use test data set collected from sina micro-blog and adopt the micro average and macro average of F1-Measure to evaluate the effects of short text classification. The results show that the short text feature selected by our method has a good amount of information, as well as good classification results.

Sulforaphane (SFN), mainly derived from cruciferous vegetables, has received much attention for its cancer chemopreventive property. Though there have been a few epidemiological studies supporting its beneficial effect on cardiovascular diseases, much experimental evidence are still required to understand its mechanism. In this study, human vascular endothelial cell, a barrier of blood, was used as an in vitro model to investigate the protective effect of sulforaphane on inflammatory damage induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS). The results showed that sulforaphane inhibited the expression of COX-2 and iNOS stimulated by lipopolysaccharide in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Moreover, sulforaphane suppressed the phosphorylation of ERK1/2, JNK, and p38 activated by lipopolysaccharide. Pretreatment with SB202190, the specific inhibitor of p38, abolished the expression of COX-2 induced by LPS. Likewise, SP600125, inhibitor of JNK, abrogated iNOS expression stimulated by LPS. Moreover, pretreatment with anisomycin (AM), an activator of p38 and JNK, instead of LPS, the expression of COX-2 and iNOS is still inhibited by sulforaphane. Interestingly, SFN significantly induced HO-1 and TR expression down-regulated by LPS. Taken together, these data indicated that sulforaphane exhibited the protective role against the inflammatory injury in vascular endothelia cells, through inactivating p38 MAPK and JNK, as well as inducing phase 2 enzymes.

Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) overexpression has been associated with the grade, prognosis and recurrence of transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) of the bladder. In this study, sulforaphane, a dietary isothiocyanate, down-regulated COX-2 expression in human bladder transitional cancer T24 cells at both transcriptional- and translational levels. Sulforaphane (5-20 microM) induced nuclear translocation of NF-kappaB and reduced its binding to the COX-2 promoter, a key mechanism for suppressing COX-2 expression by sulforaphane. Moreover, sulforaphane increased expression of p38 and phosphorylated-p38 protein. A specific inhibitor of p38 MAPK, SB202190, was used to further investigate its pivotal role in sulforaphane-mediated down-regulation of COX-2. Exposure of T24 cells to SB202190 1 hour prior to sulforaphane treatment abolished the effect of sulforaphane on COX-2 mRNA down-regulation, but enhanced COX-2 transcription. Furthermore, SB202190 alone induced NF-kappaB translocation to the nucleus, promoted NF-kappaB binding to the COX-2 promoter and resulted in up-regulation of COX-2 expression. Taken together, these data suggest that p38 is essential in sulforaphane-mediated COX-2 suppression and provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms of sulforaphane in the chemoprevention of bladder cancer.

To explore the gene expression of hormone sensitive lipase (HSL) and lipoprotein lipase (LPL) between obesity-prone (OP) and obesity-resistant (OR) rats induced by a high-fat diet.Eighty male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were fed with a high-fat diet for 5 weeks, then OP and OR rats were selected according to their body weight gain. All the rats were fed with basic diet for another 10 weeks, the rats were then sacrificed, and serum samples were collected. To discuss the function of HSL and LPL during the formation of obesity or obesity resistance, RT-PCR was used to compare the gene expression of HSL and LPL in white adipose tissue.At the end of the 5th week, when compared with OR rats, the gene expression of HSL in white adipose tissue was lower in OP rats, but the gene expression of LPL was higher in OP rats. After switched to basic diet for 10 weeks, HSL gene expression had no difference between OP and OR rats, but LPL gene was still highly expressed in OP rats.The formation of obesity prone rats may be associated with decreased HSL gene expression and increased LPL gene expression, which promote adipose synthesis and inhibit lipolysis. Highly expressed HSL gene may be associated with high fat diet, while increased LPL gene expression is the specific change of OP rats.